People of the Five Nations Drinking and Eating (Gokakoku jinbutsu dontaku no zu)

Utagawa Yoshitora

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Publishers in Edo (present-day Tokyo) immediately recognized local interest in nearby Yokohama’s newly opened port, and began releasing prints featuring foreigners. Popular subjects included the so-called black ships, or Western vessels, assembled on the open sea, shops on the settlement streets, and the customs and clothing of foreign men and women. The Japanese were eager to buy these prints, despite only thirty-four Western merchants living in Yokohama in 1860, and altogether some two hundred Western residents by about 1862.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art